Tantalizer 490: Diplomatic niceties

Before assuming office as governor of Coconut Island, Sir Donald Duck briefed himself as best he could. There were, he discovered, four chiefs called Fe, Fi, Fo and Fum. The mark of chiefly rank was a turkey feather, red or green at will. The senior chief wore an old pair of Wellington boots and the others went barefoot. Fe always spoke the truth, Fi never, Fo pleased himself and Fum spoke the truth when and only when wearing a green feather.

Knowing no more than this, Sir Donald landed with pomp and found the four chiefs awaiting him. He shook hands all round and inquired, “What is the name of the senior chief?” One chief replied “Fe”, another “not Fum” and a third “Fo”. Sir Donald did not hear the fourth reply but it did not matter, since, being a Balliol man and so very clever, he worked out the name of the senior chief without it.

One response to “Tantalizer 490: Diplomatic niceties”

As far as Sir Donald is concerned he met four chiefs, each of which was wearing a red or green feather, and one of which was wearing wellies. He doesn’t know which of the four names belongs to which chief, but from the responses of the first three he is able to deduce the name of the senior chief (who is the one wearing the wellies).

This Python program looks at each possible scenario for the assignments of the feathers and the wellies to the four chiefs, and then looks possible assignments of names to the chiefs such that the responses of the first three chiefs is consistent with the described behaviour. If the responses are consistent we record the name of the senior chief. If at the end of considering the possible assignments of names to chiefs there is only one possibility for the senior chief, then this is a possible scenario that Sir Donald found himself in.

It turns out there is only one situation where Sir Donald would be able to deduce the name of the senior chief.

That is, if the three chiefs whose replies he heard are all wearing red feathers, and the fourth chief is wearing the wellies (we don’t make a judgement on his reply, so it doesn’t matter what colour feather he is wearing).

In this case, in order for the replies heard to be consistent, the three chiefs are either (Fo, Fe, Fum) or (Fum, Fe, Fo), and the fourth (and senior) chief is Fi.

Chief 1 says the senior chief is Fe. This is a false statement. But as he is Fo this is consistent.
Chief 2 says the senior chief is not Fum. This is a true statement. He is Fe, so this is also consistent.
Chief 3 says the senior chief is Fo. This is a false statement. He is Fum, wearing a red feather, so lies.

In the second case Chief 1 is Fum, and Chief 3 is Fo, and they both can still consistently utter falsehoods.

In either case the senior chief is Fi, so this is the deduction that Sir Donald makes, and is the answer to the puzzle.